The Big Dinosaur Podcast

Episode 202 is all about Hadrosaurus, the first dinosaur skeleton to be mounted.

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In this episode, we discuss:

News:

• A new dinosaur, Jinguofortis perplexus, gives a perplexing glimpse into early bird evolution source
• A new carcharodontosaurid specimen was found North of Lisbon in Portugal source
• The National Museum in Rio, Brazil may reopen in 3 years if they can secure funding source
• The Dinosaur Gallery at the Australian Museum has reopened after adding the T. rex from the show “T. rex Autopsy” source
• The New Mexico Museum of Natural History Foundation has a campaign to open a permanent exhibit of an animatronic “Bisti Beast” source
• The Royal Tyrrell Museum 3D printed a Daspletosaurus skull for display because the original was too fragile to cast source
• The Upcountry History Museum in Greenville, South Carolina, has a new exhibit, “Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice” source
• Beaumont, Texas will celebrate a Dinosaur Day on October 24th, with activities such as painting papier-mâché dinosaurs. source
• 9-year-old Elijah Stevenson won first place in the Kern County Fair in California, for his dinosaur exhibit source

The dinosaur of the day: Hadrosaurus

• You can see Hadrosaurus in the hologoram at the Innovation Center in Jurassic World, on the Jurassic World website, and in the first book (herd of Hadrosaurus stampede during a T. rex attack)
• Lived in the Cretaceous in what is now North America
• Name means “bulky” or “large” or “sturdy lizard”
• Herbivorous
• Had forelimbs shorter than hindlimbs, mostly quadrupedal, with a long tail, but could be bipedal at times
• Weighed around 7-8 tones, and was about 25 ft (7.6 m) long and 10 ft (3 m) tall
• First named hadrosaur, and is the type genus of Hadrosauroidea and Hadrosauridae
• Many hadrosaurs have crests on their head (some solid, some hollow)
• Skull is unknown, so no idea if Hadrosaurus even had a crest on top of its head
• Only one species: Hadrosaurus foulkii
• Found in 1858 in the Woodbury Formation in New Jersey in the U.S., and was the first dinosaur known from more than a few teeth that was found in North America
• Found one specimen only, included parts of the skull and skeleton
• John Hopkins was digging in a marl pit in 1838 in Haddonfield, New Jersey, and found some bones. He put them on display at his home
• In 1858, William Parker Foulke, a naturalist, learned about it when visiting Hopkins in Haddonfield, and dug out the skeleton from the marl pit
• Foulke worked with Joseph Leidy, and they found limbs, a pelvis, parts of the feet, vertebrae, some teeth, and parts of the jaw
• Described by Leidy in 1858, and named in honor of Foulke
• Leidy wrote a monograph in 1860, but the American Civil War delayed the publication until 1865
• Leidy found it was similar to Iguanodon, but the skeleton was more complete (compared to what had been found of Iguanodon at the time)
• The site, known as the Hadrosaurus foulkii Leidy site, is now a national historic landmark
• An Eagle Scout, Christopher Brees, rediscovered the dig site, as part of his project to earn the Eagle Scout title in Boy Scouts of America. The dig site coordinates were lost shortly after the skeleton was dug up. In 1984, Brees used old maps and found the location, then cleaned up the garbage that had piled up on the site. His team marked the spot with a 700 pound stone (which now has a plaque on it)
• The site is at the end of a cul-de-sac in a suburb (dinosaur table toys)
• Hadrosaurus was the first mounted dinosaur skeleton, in 1868
• Lediy said Hadrosaurus was bipedal (because it had large rear legs), with the tail dragging on the floor, and walking upright (tripod position)
• They also thought it was bipedal because of tracks in England of a bipedal dinosaur, the discovery of tyrannosaur Dryptosaurus in NJ in 1866, and Thomas Henry Huxley’s idea that dinosaurs were bird-like
• Now the thinking is Hadrosaurus was mostly quadrupedal, but could have reared up to get food that was higher up, and may have been able to run on two legs away from predators
• Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins (Crystal Palace Dinosaur) and a team mounted the Hadrosaurus, which was put on display at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences
• Hawkins sculpted a plaster skull (since no skull was found)
• The Academy starting charging admission for the first time to see the mount, to keep crowds under control
• Hadrosaurus was also the first dinosaur mounted in Europe, when a copy of Hadrosaurus was mounted at the Royal Scottish Museum in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1879
• Because the skull wasn’t really found, Hadrosaurus for a while was thought to be too incomplete to compare to other hadrosaurs for classification, and was considered to be a nomen dubium.
• Dr. Albert Prieto-Marquez, David Weishampel and Jack Horner thought it was too similar to other hadrosaurs in 2006. Then in 2011 Prieto-Marquez found the hip was distinct enough to keep Hadrosaurus as a valid dinosaur
• Hadrosaurus is the official state dinosaur of New Jersey
• Fourth graders from Haddon Township worked for four years to make Hadrosaurus the state dinosaur. The teacher, Joyce Berry, said “We were known…as the shortest lobbyists, but the loudest.” Governor Jim Florio signed the bill into law in 1991
• There’s a creek called Hadrosaurus Run by the site where it was found
• Can also see a statue of Hadrosaurus, made by John Giannotti, in the center of the town Haddonfield
• The Hadrosaurus sculpture is 8 ft tall, 1200 pounds, and built in 2003 (known as Haddy)
• Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins had planned to have something similar to London’s Crystal Palace in Central Park, in New York. But Hawkins didn’t like Boss Tweed, who ran the area, and Hawkins spoke out publicly against him. In retaliation, Tweed’s men broke into his studio and destroyed all the dinosaurs, including a Hadrosaurus. The project fell through
• Can see a replica of Hadrosaurus at the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sciences (original bones are still there, not on display)
• Hadrosaurus holotype found in marine sediments, so the body may have been transported by a river to a sea
• Predators of Hadrosaurus included tyrannosaurs, giant crocodiles, and dromaeosaurs and troodonts (for juveniles)

Fun Fact:

Humans and some dinosaurs (/birds) both have massively reduced tails that are basically just a few fused bones. In birds it’s called a pygostyle, but in humans it’s called a coccyx.

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This episode is brought to you in part by TRX Dinosaurs, which makes beautiful and realistic dinosaur sculptures, puppets, and animatronics. You can see some amazing examples and works in progress on Instagram @trxdinosaurs